Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Gardens opened in 2010 in Inver Grove Heights and touts itself as the first green burial cemetery in Minnesota. (Courtesy photo)

Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Gardens asked the Inver Grove Heights City Council for permission in May to build a 9,400-square-foot full-service mortuary on nearly 3 acres of a 13-acre site off Argenta Trail. (Courtesy image)

A contentious plan by the owner of a “green” cemetery to add a mortuary with a crematorium has been rejected by the Inver Grove Heights City Council amid concerns the service would not fit the area, which is bordered by residential homes.

Residents began a campaign to fight the project by Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Gardens, which opened in 2010 and touts itself as being the first green burial cemetery in Minnesota. For burials, it does not allow metal, concrete or toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde-based embalming fluid to go into the ground.

But nearby residents feared a crematorium would create air pollutants, devalue property values and stunt future development in the area, among other concerns.

Tony Weber, owner of Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Gardens, asked the city council last week for permission to build the 9,400-square-foot full-service mortuary on nearly 3 acres of his 13-acre site off Argenta Trail, located at the far western edge of the city just south of Minnesota 55. A cluster of homes sits to the south.

The property, part of an original 40-acre piece of land, was approved for a cemetery for Riverview Church in 1975. Twenty-nine bodies are buried on the property, which has room for 10,000 plots, Weber said.

He told the council that the mortuary would meet a growing demand for environmentally friendly cremation and that concerns about any health hazards are unnecessary. His plan called for 100 cremations annually.

But council members unanimously denied Weber’s request to rezone a part of the cemetery’s land from institutional use to planned-unit development — effectively killing the project.

“The folks that have lived in Inver Grove and have been paying taxes and live in that area don’t deserve to have something like that next to their property,” council member Dennis Madden said. “It doesn’t belong there.”

John Wendt was one of several residents who were uneasy that crematorium emissions would create potential health and environmental impacts.

“We have shown or we will show that there are too many questions, too many issues to ignore,” he told the council. “This furnace will severely impact the quality of life in our neighborhood. And the fundamental responsibility of the government is to provide for the public health safety and general welfare of its citizens.”

Wendt noted how Roseville city leaders rejected Roselawn Cemetery’s proposed crematorium in 2001 because of potential environmental and health impacts and a lack of environmental regulations in place at the time to address cremation.

Mark Mueller, who was representing his mother’s 40-acre estate located adjacent to the proposed project, said that he has a signed letter of intent from a residential developer to buy the property and that a “crematorium would be a deal-breaker.”

Weber told the council that the Matthews Power-Pak II Plus cremation system he planned to buy was “by far and away the best that has ever been produced, not only in the United States but in the world.”

The $116,000 unit would discharge less than 20 percent of emission levels allowed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for cremations, Weber said. An extra “smoke buster” feature would destroy any smoke and odor left in the system’s chambers, he added.

Items such as pacemakers or dental fillings that could contain mercury would be removed from bodies before being burned, he said.

But his proposal was not enough to convince the city council.

“I don’t see the zoning as being a fit,” Mayor George Tourville said.

Afterward, Weber said he planned to resubmit plans to the city for a mortuary that would be made up of just a chapel and a columbarium.

“We had a lot of hysteria with the local population,” he said, adding that his son and two grandchildren live 500 yards from the proposed building site. “Here I’m trying to do something good for the environment and the ground water, and there’s all this opposition that was uncalled for.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) — The Rev. Billy Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, died Wednesday. He was 99.

The Crosswinds school building in Woodbury could reopen as a science-focused magnet school with St. Paul Public Schools as its new owner. The St. Paul school board voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to buy the building from the state for $15.3 million. The deal closes Wednesday morning. The St. Paul district was a member of the cooperative that built Crosswinds...

It may have begun as a rumor, but now it’s officially a controversy. Members of the District 833 American Indian Parent Committee urged the South Washington County School Board last week to remove an Indian head mosaic at Park High School. The artwork was installed in 1965 in the east part of the main hallway near the school gym. They...

The parent group of Minnesota Public Radio is opening an innovation center — a testing lab and co-working space for startup ventures — in downtown St. Paul’s former Ecolab Tower on Wabasha Street. American Public Media plans to open the Glen Nelson Center in the recently renovated Osborn370 building this summer. Backed by philanthropic foundations, the center will invest in...

Sun Country Airlines is cutting 350 workers from its ground service operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The Eagan-based company told employees Tuesday it will contract those jobs out to Global Aviation Services Inc. Executives say the move will make Sun County more efficient. Layoffs begin immediately, with workers able to reapply for positions with Global Aviation as soon as...

The late Spiro Pina made Olympic history in 1994 when he became the first man to compete in luge for Greece. Pina, a native of St. Paul and a dual citizen of Greece and the U.S., returned to the Winter Olympics four years later, carrying the flag for Greece in Nagano, Japan. He placed 24th both years. Now his Olympic sled,...